NEW YORK, Jan. 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Ernst & Young LLP today announced that Orlan Boston, Steven McLeighton, Ben Pickering, Thomas Taylor, Giri Varadarajan, and Simon Western have joined the Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) practice. All of the new team members come to the firm with decades of experience in mergers & acquisitions (M&A), private equity (PE), and restructuring advisory.

Thomas Taylor and Giri Varadarajan will join Ernst & Young LLP as co-leaders of the newly formed Private Equity Value Creation Advisory Group. This team, within the TAS practice, has been added to provide PE firms and their portfolio company management teams with services ranging from operational due diligence and performance improvement services to addressing revenue enhancement, margin improvement and capital efficiency strategies. The group will address the growing demand for an integrated operational due diligence and value-creation advisory service offering.

"We are delighted to welcome our newest professionals to TAS, and we expect that their diverse areas of expertise and years of industry experience will bring tremendous value to our clients," said Rich Jeanneret, Ernst & Young Americas Vice Chair and head of Ernst & Young LLP's Transaction Advisory Services. "In the evolving transactions landscape, our clients are increasingly seeking enhanced capabilities in a wide variety of services, Orlan, Steven, Ben, Thomas, Giri and Simon will all add to our deep experience in M&A, PE, restructuring, and operational transaction services."

Orlan Boston – Orlan Boston joins Ernst & Young LLP's Transaction Advisory Services Life Sciences sector and Operational Transactions Services group as a principal and the Transaction Life Sciences Sector Leader. He brings 15 years of experience in management consulting and transaction advisory services for the life sciences and healthcare industry. Mr. Boston's primary areas of focus are in mergers, acquisitions, restructuring, and commercial and operational strategy in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and consumer healthcare sectors. Before joining Ernst & Young, Mr. Boston worked at Deloitte Consulting, where he was the National Life Sciences M&A and Post Merger Integration Consulting Practice Leader, a member of the National Markets & Services Leadership Committee, and the Chief Diversity Officer.

Steven McLeighton - Steven McLeighton joins as the Legal Entity Rationalization (LER) leader for Ernst & Young LLP's Americas Transaction Advisory Services, a new position which will help companies during the target identification, due diligence, and integration processes. Mr. McLeighton joins after 20 years at KPMG, where he headed legal entity rationalization in the United States. He has led engagements across technology, energy, media and entertainment, telecommunications, financial services, and mining companies. Mr. McLeighton also has over 20 years of experience instructing graduate-level tax courses at various universities. For the past fifteen years, he has been an adjunct instructor in the Masters of Taxation program at Georgia State University, lecturing on domestic and cross-border mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures.

Ben Pickering –Ben Pickering joins Ernst & Young LLP's Transaction Advisory Services US Restructuring Advisory Services group as a principal, where he will continue to advise clients on restructuring. Mr. Pickering has over 22 years of experience in corporate restructuring and turnarounds across an array of industries. Before joining Ernst & Young, Mr. Pickering was a senior managing director in a boutique restructuring firm in the US and prior to that, a partner in the restructuring group of a Big 4 accounting firm.

Thomas Taylor – Thomas Taylor joins Ernst & Young LLP's Transaction Advisory Services group as a Senior Managing Director and co-leader of the firm's newly formed Private Equity Value Creation Advisory Group. Taylor has more than 30 years' experience assessing strategic and operational issues and helping private equity funds and their portfolio companies improve profitability and promote growth in challenging environments. Tom recently joined EY from JLL Partners, a middle-market private equity firm; there, he directed management teams of investees in high-growth companies, and turnarounds across multiple industry segments including consumer and building products, healthcare and financial and business services. Before joining JLL Partners, Tom was a CEO and CFO of two portfolio companies of two other middle-market PE funds; collectively, Tom has more than 15 years of PE operating experience.

Giri Varadarajan -Giri Varadarajan joins Ernst & Young LLP's Transaction Advisory Services group as a Senior Managing Director and co-leader of the PE Value Creation Advisory Group. He has more than 15 years' experience advising clients on value-creation programs, enterprise cost reduction, capital efficiency improvements, supply-chain transformations, outsourcing, and pricing and portfolio optimization. Giri recently joined the firm from Deloitte Consulting LLP. His experience spans all stages of the transaction lifecycle, including the purchase, integration, value-creation and sale phases. He has led or worked on engagements in more than a dozen countries and a range of industries, including consumer goods, retail, industrial products, and telecommunications.

Simon Western – Simon Western joins as Senior Managing Director and US Financial Services' sector leader for Ernst & Young Capital Advisors, LLC, a registered broker-dealer and affiliate of the firm. Mr. Western has over 20 years of investment banking experience for financial institutions; including 15 years spent focusing on clients in the asset management industry. He has a broad range of transaction experience across M&A, IPO advisory, and capital raising for traditional and alternative asset managers, exchanges, and securities firms. Mr. Western previously worked at Nomura Securities International as a Managing Director and head of the Americas asset management practice. Mr. Western has also held senior positions in New York and London at Bank of America Securities, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, and Midland Bank (now part of HSBC).

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